THE new leadership at the Department of Tourism (DOT) is looking to strictly implement the Tourism Act of 2009, when vacancies occur at the various government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) the agency oversees.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Tourism Secretary-designate Bernadette Fatima Romulo Puyat said the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) “has to go through the process already of choosing its representatives,” to the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) and Duty Free Philippines Corp., “because it’s in the law [Tourism Act].”
TCP has five representatives to the boards of TPB and Tieza, and three for Duty Free. All three are GOCCs, which the tourism secretary chairs. She met with tourism stakeholders on Wednesday, where she listened to their concerns and discussed various issues in the industry.
TCP President Jose Clemente III said, “We discussed the nominating process of TPB, Tieza and Duty-Free. [We have] to go through the right process of nominating the directors from the private sector, because they play an important part in the programs for the next four years. We need to fix the institutions already.”
He added the TCP board will have to draw up “new procedures as to how we will choose the people we will nominate to the board [of these GOCCs]. So we will have to come up with the vetting process, with the criteria of the people we will be nominating to the boards.”
He said for the TPB specifically, the terms of office of the board will end in June 30, so we will have to have our nominations in before that day.”
Romulo Puyat said she wants the TCP to give ratings for each nominee to the boards, and “those who get the highest marks will be the ones I choose. I don’t even have to look. They would know best who should be on those boards.”
In a separate interview, Philippine Tour Operators Association (Philtoa) President Cesar Cruz expressed satisfaction with their meeting with Romulo Puyat, whose tourism products “seem aligned to our own. She appreciated what we presented to her, it’s actually a wish list of the stakeholders, and discussed with her the state of the industry because of what happened under the past secretary. And so far, we are of the same view, for example, retaining the ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ [brand campaign], implementing products like the culinary, faith tourism and heritage tourism. Our ideas matched.”
He added that many of the projects Romulo Puyat had worked on at the DA can “easily be converted to tourism products. Her coming from the DA is very timely, she can use her experience there and apply it to tourism.”
Christine U. Ibarreta, president of the Hotel Sales and Marketing International Inc., and Marlene Dado Jante, president of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association, appeared elated with their meeting with the new DOT chief. “She’s very knowledgable, grounded, no airs, super humble and intelligent,” Ibarreta said.
“This meeting just proves that she’s really interested in working with the private sector,” said Jante, for her part.
In its wish list, Philtoa urged the “proper implementation of the Tourism Act of 2009. It was never given a chance.” For instance, when the Duterte administration came in, the TPB was forced to accept the appointment of actor Cesar Montano as its COO, which went against said law.
Also, the group pushed for the “strategic and comprehensive marketing and promotion plan” that the industry can follow. The group also asked that the fashion shows be removed in DOT’s travel and trade shows abroad, saying these “had generated very little impact, and instead have more relevant marketing; more defined and cohesive tour offerings in line with the promotional campaign theme,” among others.
Romulo Puyat described her meeting with the private sector as “fantastic. I enjoyed talking with [them]. It’s funny that many of their concerns were already what I mentioned that I wanted to address, like keeping the ‘It’s More Fun’ campaign, etc.”
She said she looked forward to more interactions with the industry stakeholders as she treats them as partners in achieving DOT’s goals.